Women and Anger: Sex and Sex-Role Comparisons in the Expression of Anger

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship of sex and sex-role identity with the expression of anger. In particular, a number of common assertions about women's experience and expression of anger were examined empirically. Female (242) and male (213) college students completed several questionnaires assessing sex-role identity and multiple dimensions of the subjective experience and expression of anger. Univariate analyses revealed consistent relationships between sex-role identity and anger proneness, outward expression of anger, modulation or control of anger expression, and suppression of anger. Significant sex differences were not observed. Viewed unidimensionally, sex did not appear to be the determining factor in anger expression or the tendency to suppress anger.

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